Peanut butter outbreak's impact on small businesses
Karla Cook writes in tomorrow's New York Times that the Peanut Corp of America-linked Salmonella outbreak's reach has not been limited to multi-national companies:
Small businesses in all corners of the United States bought potentially tainted peanut products from the Peanut Corporation of America and are now part of one of the largest food recalls ever in this country. There is the chef in Las Vegas, for instance, who used them in protein bars, the packager of nuts and dried fruits in Connecticut, the cannery in Montana that sold chocolate-covered nuts and the ice cream manufacturer in New York State.
While big companies like Kellogg, Kraft and General Mills have the experience and staff to handle recalls, many small businesses have never had to deal with anything like this.
Some have had to keep employees on overtime or hire additional help to handle the recall-related work — records have to be searched to identify and track products, and replacement products manufactured. And company officials say they are spending a lot of time reassuring their customers.
“It’s not our fault this recall went through,” said Tom Lundeen, who co-owns Aspen Hills Inc., in Garner, Iowa, which makes frozen cookie dough for fund-raisers. “We do everything correct and we have an incredibly high level of quality control, and we still have to pay for the mistakes of P.C.A.”
Yep, exactly - this outbreak has demonstrated the complexity and interconnectedness of the food system -- which has largely been built on trust in suppliers or the results of their third-party audits.
Jenny Scott, a microbiologist and vice president of science policy and food protection for the Grocery Manufacturers Association, a trade group in Washington, said small businesses need to know their suppliers’ food safety culture and practices, and whether the suppliers are capable of doing the right thing. Last week, she helped teach a Web seminar for 60 participants, “The Ingredient Supply Chain: Do You Know Who You’re in Bed With?”
Like it was straight out of the pages of barfblog -- although trying to assess the food safety culture and supplier practices is difficult, it's not impossible. Creating and fostering the openess and transparency of food production through marketing food safety, with companies opening their doors can help buyers make decisions.
Benjamin Chapman, food safety extension specialist at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, went further. “If you’re in the peanut butter industry, you need to be thinking about salmonella,” he said. Learning about suppliers is challenging when the supplier is not local, and the layers of the national food system are difficult to pierce.
PB and Salmonella: where are the third-party audits?
Watching the number of recalls continue to grow in the Salmonella in peanut butter debacle, I’m wondering why is it taking some of these companies so long to issue a recall? Today it was Jenny Craig 
and dozens others. My guess is these distributors have no idea what’s in the products they are hawking and it takes weeks to track down such info. If a food processor really knows its suppliers, it should take hours or minutes to figure out if the suspect ingredient is in some kid’s peanut cracker snacks or Kirstie Alley’s Jenny Craig bar (she’s not with the program anymore? Oh).
And sure, everyone’s calling for better government oversight, but what about the third-party auditors? If Peanut Corporation of America was supplying paste and industrial tubs of peanut butter to all these processors and distributers, they must have had third-party auditors through the peanut processing plant in Blakely, Georgia. What problems did the auditors uncover? And what was done about such problems?
Peanut plant previously cited for violtions
The New York Times is reporting the peanut processing plant at the center of a salmonella outbreak that has killed seven and sickened over 500 in 43 American States and Canada had “a history of sanitation lapses and was cited repeatedly in 2006 and 2007 for having dirty surfaces and walls and grease residue and dirt build-up throughout the plant, according to state health inspection reports.” ...
The inspection reports were provided by Georgia officials in response to a request made by The New York Times under the state’s open records act. State officials said they could not release two recent inspection reports from 2008 because of the ongoing investigation into the plant. ...
Inspections of the plant in Blakely, Ga., by the state agriculture department found areas of rust that could flake into food, gaps in warehouse doors large enough for rodents to get through, unmarked spray bottles and containers, and numerous violations of other practices designed to prevent food contamination. The plant, owned by Peanut Corporation of America of Lynchburg, Va., has been shut down.
It's cold in North Carolina; and there is more Salmonella here
It's been cold here in North Carolina lately. The past few mornings it has been clear and sunny, but with temperatures in the mid-teens. Perfect weather for hockey. 
On Thursday night Dani, Jack and I went to the Leafs/Hurricanes game. We took advantage of the cheap tickets ($25 each, and Jack gets in free until he's two). My beloved Leafs took a 4-0 lead before almost totally collapsing and pulled out a 6-4 win. Both teams looked like they might have had some foodborne illness, and left the remnants on the ice. It was a really sloppy game. Maybe they had been eating peanut butter.
Public health officials announced yesterday that an additional three North Carolinians have been added to the national Salmonella Typhimurium. It was reported that one of the new cases was a resident who died in November due to a blood infection caused by Salmonella.
Today, the FDA updated it's information related to the outbreak. The FDA website says:
The FDA has notified PCA that product samples originating from its Blakely, Ga., processing plant have been tested and found positive for Salmonella by laboratories in the states of Minnesota, Georgia and Connecticut. The state of Minnesota reported to FDA that its samples of King Nut peanut butter are a genetic match to the strain of Salmonella that has caused illnesses in the state and around the country. King Nut is a distributor of PCA product.
Because identification of products subject to recall is continuing, the FDA urges consumers to postpone eating peanut butter-containing products until further information becomes available about which products may be affected. Efforts to specifically identify those products are ongoing.
At this time, there is no indication that any national name brand jars of peanut butter sold in retail stores are linked to the PCA recall. As the investigation continues over the weekend, and into next week, the FDA will be able to update the advice based on new sampling and distribution information.
Kellogg connection to Salmonella outbreak?
Kellogg has asked stores to halt the sales of some of their peanut butter snacks as it was announced that one of their suppliers is Peanut Corp. of America.
This connection might be what was missing for many of the outbreak victims who have not been associated with eating peanut butter. Maybe they had some peanut butter snacks? I'm sure the state and federal epidemiologists will be/have been looking at this link.
From the press release:
"PCA is one of several peanut paste suppliers that the company uses in its Austin® and Keebler® branded peanut butter sandwich crackers.
Kellogg Company's investigation has not indicated any concerns, nor has the Company received any consumer illness complaints about these products. Nonetheless, Kellogg Company is taking precautionary measures including putting a hold on any inventory in its control, removing product from retail store shelves, and encouraging customers and consumers to hold and not eat these products until regulatory officials complete their investigation of PCA and Kellogg provides further information as to the resolution of this issue.
With 2007 sales of nearly $12 billion, Kellogg Company is the world's leading producer of cereal and a leading producer of convenience foods, including cookies, crackers, toaster pastries, cereal bars, frozen waffles, and meat alternatives."
Good move by Kellogg for sure. If one of your suppliers is suspect, or has been linked to illnesses, take a look at where that product might have been used and figure out whether the risk has made it to your customers.
In a local connection for me, it was reported by ABC 11 here in Raleigh that the sandwich crackers on hold are solely produced at a plant in Cary, North Carolina. The FDA isn't saying whether they are inspecting the Cary plant.
Salmonella outbreak linked to peanut butter
As Doug posted earlier, it looks as though peanut butter has been implicated in the current 400+ person outbreak of Salmonella Typhimurium. Earlier tonight AP cited CDC sources as saying that the Salmonella also may have contributed to three deaths. AP reports that it looks like Minnesota Dept of Health has yet again cracked the case and recovered the outbreak strain from an opened jar of King Nut brand peanut butter, and has epidemiolgy to back it up:
"The commonality among all of our patients was that they ate peanut butter," said Doug Schultz, a spokesman with the Minnesota Department of Health. While the brand of peanut butter couldn't be confirmed in every case, the majority of patients consumed the same brand, he said Monday.
Here's a food safety infosheet that focuses on the outbreak. You can download it here.
A tale of two tastes
I don't even like peanut butter. But Elizabeth Lee of the Atlanta-Journal Constitution managed to find two fans, with decidedly different perceptions of risk after the Peter Pan salmonella outbreak.Linda Moore, 59, who works nights as a licensed practical nurse, was quoted as saying,
"It's a comfort food. You don't think about something being wrong with peanut butter. I would never have thought it. Never."
Moore, who bought the brand for many years, but now can't stand to think about eating any peanut butter, stated,
"When I'm in the grocery store, I just look and keep moving. I can't do it. I don't know if I'll ever eat it again. It scared the daylights out of me."
Pat Allen, 67, of Fayetteville, was quoted as saying,
"I don't know anyone that was involved with that, anyone that got sick. … Once you're hooked on it, you can't have anything else. I just like my Peter Pan and I want it back."
